Essay Sample on Gender, Sexualities and the Law

Introduction

The legal system has been vocal in the prevention of vices such as sexual oppression and has provided strict punishments to the people who violate the stipulated code of conduct. However, the law has been criticized for its different approaches when such violations occur to individuals of different religion, class, nationalism, and race. For instance, the legal system has been criticized on the way it handles violence cases involving indigenous women and two-spirited individuals. One of the cases is the missing and murdered indigenous women in the Turtle Island which revolve around judicial grievance and legal accountability. Although these cases were witnessed in the colonial times, the government carries slow investigations and keeps on apologizing for their occurrence with little efforts being put to eradicate them. The government does not address the cases of violence involving indigenous women and two-spirited individuals in depth, a factor which has led to their continued occurrence.

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The failure of the law to protect indigenous women is evident in the case of missing and murdered native American women in the Turtle Island (AWID, 2014). In most cases, suspicious deaths are well investigated with the police trying the uncover the causes leading to the deaths and putting counteractive measures to prevent similar future occurrences. However, the deaths were not well investigated as the victims' race was used to dictate the level of investigations. Since such kind of death has been witnessed in the region, the government would have launched in-depth investigations which would have gained a significant amount of success by exposing the perpetrators of such vices. The law has been silent on these deaths will the public participating in online forums to force the police conduct investigations. As such, it does not value two-spirited individuals which is evident by the reluctance it shows when handling cases of violence witnessed in their community.

The murder of Cindy Gladue who resided in northeastern Alberta in a bathtub due to a wound after participating in a sexual act with Brandley Barton shows the discriminative nature of law when it comes to legal matters involving aboriginal women. Mr. Barton was acquitted of murder charges as the incident was termed as manslaughter which is a lesser crime (Carlson, 2015). Although it could be theorized that Mr. Barton killed Ms. Gladue intentionally, the judge argued that she had given consent to the act that led to her demise. During the court proceedings, the defendant argued that sexual violence was done to tissue but not to a woman. Such utterances were condemned by the lawyer who represented an intervenor group dubbed the Women of Metis who explained that the victim was dehumanized and objectified. Such a case shows the failure of the law to handle cases of violence in a just manner, an action fueled by racial discrimination.

A similar case was also witnessed in the freezing death of a seventeen-year-old kid in Canada (Razack, 2014). It was reported that the kid got drug and decided to go on a walk, an action which led to his death. However, upon close investigation, the kid had marks on the face and on wrists which resembled handcuff marks. Similar deaths of two people and a survivor shed light on the death of the kid that the murder was carried out by police officers. Instead of the law taking disciplinary actions to the police, the incidence was termed as police anger which was acceptable. These deaths can be traced back to the standoff between the aboriginal people and the colonialists' settlers who evicted the natives to occupy their land. With the aboriginals being regarded as a dying race, these deaths show that the law is reluctant to address cases of violence directed to the indigenous people.

"Me Too" protests show the discriminative nature of the legal system when it comes to handling sexual violence among the female gender. The hashtag "Me Too" was initiated to expose sexual harassment in workplaces with thousands of women participating in the online campaign. The campaign was well received by women in various workplaces such as in sports, music and military to encourage victims to report perpetuators of the vice. Besides, few critical laws have been passed by the conference to counteract sexual harassment in the workplaces and they are aimed at helping the victims take their grievances to the court of law. Although most of the individual have supported this campaign, it is not welcomed among the aboriginal women, and those who participate are termed as aggressive (Nixon, 2019). Failure of the law to impose strict measures among the aboriginal women shows its disregard of indigenous women, perpetuating the continuation of sexual harassment episodes.

Sexual exploitations among the aboriginal people have always been associated with cultural values leading to lesser jail terms to the offenders. Sexual exploitation of indigenous women is not regarded as a serious crime, an aspect which prevents the victims from seeking justice. An example is Iyetsiak Simigak, an Anglican minister who was charged to an eight-month jail term for four counts of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Emberley, 2007). Fellow ministers supported the less jail term stating that he acted as per the Inuit traditions of making young women proud of womanhood. In this scenario, the legal systems deny victims of their rights by masking sexual abuse on old cultural traditions (Emberley, 2014). Compared with the strict legal actions taken on offenders charged with sexual abuse, the lesser jail terms for individuals who commit the same crimes to aboriginal women shows the less concern of the law towards protecting indigenous women from sexual harassment.

Racism has been witnessed in dealing with the sex trade among aboriginal women (Megaphone, 2012). The law to curb sex trade has been supported by feminists who seek to curb such a crime. However, the law relaxes when dealing with cases involving aboriginal women as they are termed as commercial sex workers in nature. Such a mentality is dated back from the colonialist time where most of the aboriginal women turned into prostitution since they had few options of earning. The participation of aboriginal women in prostitution is viewed as a normal phenomenon, and minimal efforts are put to confront this trend. In this case, the law meant to protect the subjects is marred by racial discrimination when it comes to dealing with issues regarding aboriginal women.

The rape cases on American Indian women can be traced back to the Indian community which acts as evidence for lack of strict rules to prevent two spirited women from sexual exploitation. India is one of the countries which experience more cases of sexual abuse that have caused public outcry (Biswas, 2018). Such incidents have led to the emergence of an anti-rape movement which condemns the vice and mobilizes people across the country to denounce rape. The campaign is meant to eradicate the notion of masculinity which has led to oppression towards women. In India, fatal sexual exploitation cases involving gang rapes and murder are common, and the government is yet to initiate counteractive mechanisms to eradicate the vice. Sexual exploitation among the Indian American is seen as a normal occurrence with law enforcement agencies making minimal efforts to eliminate it. Since it occurs in a large portion of Indian women, the natives suffer in silence with the law agencies putting fewer efforts to address the issue.

Sexual exploitation among native American women can be attributed to the structure of the legal system. For instance, the tribal courts cannot prosecute members who are not from the tribe even in serious crimes such as rape and sexual assault (Gilpin, 2016). Such a factor hinders the efforts of stamping out sexual assault witnessed in the American Indian women since the crime is mostly committed by non-native American males. Besides, these tribal courts have few resources and receive minimal assistance from law enforcement officers. The federal government does not fund these courts leading to a lack of funds to initiate policies towards eliminating sexual exploitation in the community. Although the Indian Americans are rightful citizens, the present legal frameworks do not favor them whereby individuals can perform serious crimes and still get away without any legal actions, validating the statement that the government does not instill strict measures to end the vice.

Conclusion

In summary, gender sexuality is one of the fields where governments have failed to protect women from sexual exploitations among indigenous women. One of the cases which affirms this statement is the murder of the Native American women in Staten Island. With these murders being witnessed for a long time, the legal agencies have put minimal efforts to carry out investigations and determine the perpetrators of these crimes. Another case is the freezing deaths involving a seventeen-year-old boy and two men rumored to have been tortured by the police. Also, the law favors the offenders of sexual exploitations on indigenous women by offering short jail terms. Even with anti-rape movements, the tribal courts are faced with low funds to initiate projects towards curbing sexual exploitation due to lack of support from the federal government. To achieve a society free from sexual violence, legal systems should impose equal jail terms to all offenders and abolish racial discrimination when it comes to handling cases involving sexual violence.

References

AWID. (2014, Nov 7). Struggle for Justice-Missing and Murdered Sisters Across Canadian Region of Turtle Island. Retrieved from http://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/

Biswas, Soutik. (2018, April 17). Why India's Rape Crisis Shows No Signs of Abating. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/.

Carlson, Kathryn. (2015, May 15). More Than A Tragic Headline: Cindy Gladue Dreamt of a Happy Life. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/.

Emberley Julia. (2007). Defamiliarizing the aboriginal: Cultural practices and decolonization in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Emberley, Julia. (2014). Testimonial Uncanny: Indigenous Storytelling, Knowledge, and Reparative Practices. New York: State University York Press.

Gilpin, L. (2016, June 7). Native American Women Still Have the Highest Rates of Rape and Assault. Retrieved from http://www.hcn.org/articles/.

Megaphone. (2012, June 18). Aboriginal women are overrepresented in the sex trade. Is there a way out? Retrieved from http://www.megaphonemagazine.com.

Nixon, Lindsay. (2019, Jan 18). #Me Too and The Secrets Indigenous Women Keep. Retrieved from https://thewalrus.ca/.

Razack S. (2014). It Happened More Than Once: Freezing Deaths in Saskatchewan.26:1 (2014) Canadian Journal of Women and The Law, 26(1),51-80.